


It Might Be Time

by yikestozier



Category: Rose Red (TV)
Genre: Banter, Dancing, Hinted at internalized homophobia, M/M, Mind Reading, Psychics, but i didnt rlly wanna get into that, emery is misunderstood and i will protect him till the day i die, idk how to tag this one man, sorta proofread, teen and up bc of some swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:41:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23098024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yikestozier/pseuds/yikestozier
Summary: Suddenly, music started to play despite Joyce saying that the record player didn't work. Emery scoffed. Joyce paid for the pizza and he turned to see everyone dancing, Annie even making Steve levitate, making him squeal. He was frozen. He tried to tell himself to move, to not get caught up in it. He didn't know these people, they weren’t his friends, in fact, most if not all of them most certainly hated him. Yet he couldn't help himself. He began to smile and laugh at the sight - and not in a mocking or spiteful way. Eventually, he broke himself out of it to notice Nick staring him down.
Relationships: Emery Waterman/Nick Hardaway
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	It Might Be Time

Suddenly, music started to play; nice, classical music, despite Joyce saying that the record player didn't work. Emery scoffed. Probably was the kid and her powers. Joyce paid for the pizza and he turned to see everyone dancing, Annie even making Steve levitate, making him squeal. He was frozen. He tried to tell himself to move, to not get caught up in it. He didn't know these people, they weren’t his friends - he hadn’t had those in years - in fact, most if not all of them most certainly hated him. Yet he couldn't help himself. He began to smile and laugh at the sight - and not in a mocking or spiteful way, seeing Cathy look at him and smile out of the corner of his eye (she was always too forgiving of him). Being in Rose Red the wholesome moment was a surprise, throwing his whole thing off.

Eventually, he broke himself out of it to notice Nick staring him down. Rolling his eyes - but being unable to stop himself from blushing a bit - Emery went to put the pizzas down and sat down himself on a chair -  _ away _ from the main couches. Not long after, however, legs appeared in front of him. Looking up, he saw it was no other than Nick Haraway. Upon catching Emery’s attention, he put his hand out. Emery scoffed.

“What do you want?”

  
“I may be the one who reads minds, but I think you know what I want, Emery.”

Despite how hard he tried, Emery had always been a pretty open book (and with the guy who reads minds you're always quite open whether you like it or not) and even he knew that the look he gave Nick was probably quite revealing of his position; it was probably quite contradictory to his words.

“Fuck no! Are you kidding me? I don't want to dance with anyone, let alone you!”

Despite what he had basically yelled, he couldn't help his mind from wandering despite his desperate attempts to stop it from doing so. 

_ He is cute though and I do miss having friends- stop thinking! _

Nick smirked, showing he obviously knew what Emery was thinking, and - despite his objections - took Emery by the hand and dragged him to a relatively remote spot of the living room.

“You prick.”

“I can literally read your mind, I know you don't mean that, Emerson.”

“Don't call me that!”

Who did this guy think he was! Dragging someone who didn't want to dance onto the ‘dance floor’ was crazy enough, but Emery wasn't even short for Emerson! Despite his spiteful thoughts Nick was sure to hear (masked by ones he himself tried to ignore about how cute Nick was and how his attractive accent would be stored in his brain until the day he dies and about how he wanted to actually enjoy himself and dance and perhaps even kiss him and questions of why he couldn’t) and him being difficult due to not wanting to dance, they soon fell into a soft sway to the music.

“Wipe that scowl off your face, darling.”

The scowl that was usually present on his face quickly disintegrated at the name and instead was taken over by a surprised face, his blush deepening embarrassingly dark.

“You okay, Emers?”

_ Tell him not to call you that, tell him to  _ _shut_ _up_ _! _

“Yeah, I'm okay.”

Nick smiled at him. It wasn't the usual almost snide smile, however, in fact, it was moreso playful if anything. As his look changed, so did his dancing style. What was once more formal became more and more chaotic almost, making Emerys already quite high voice go up a few more octaves causing him to blush more. The change was so abrupt that it forced a laugh out of Emery despite attempting not to. Looking back at Nick for the first time in a while, Emery noticed Nick looking back at him, his sparkling eyes almost staring through Emerys own. He wondered if that was because of him. He looked away.

“ _ One  _ dance, okay? That's all?”

Nick’s other hand - that didn't have Emerys own clasped in it - moved from his right hip to tap his chin, getting him to look back.

“ _ One _ dance;” he agreed, “but you have to look at me and if you're actually enjoying this, you have to show it.” 

Easy. He can lie.

“I  _ will _ know, Emery.” he  _ winked _ . He had the  audacity to  _ wink _ .

Emery glared at him but ultimately agreed to the conditions. Not long after agreeing, Nick’s chaotic “dancing” resumed and Emery decided that it couldn't possibly hurt to show at least a  _ bit  _ of real emotion. Once coming upon that epiphany, he began to giggle and put just as much into it as Nick was.

Finally letting the mean persona finally slip away - and he himself letting go - completely as the song changed and he and Nick continued to dance, he realized just how much better he felt. Maybe his mom was wrong. He knew she was about so much so why did he let her tell him it was wrong to like boys as he would a girl? As far as he could tell, it was  _ amazing _ . So good in fact that if his mother was right and this was wrong, he was okay with that. And he knew that Nick was probably just leading him on after hearing his thoughts to make fun of him and he was almost 100% certain this would end up in a broken heart someway or another… but for now hearts we're intact and full. If this we're to end up in his heart being broken, he’d be okay, he wasn't going to go back to what he used to be after feeling like this. He could even tell by the way everyone smiled at him and Nick dancing that they definitely liked this side of Emery Waterman more which made him wonder why he ever put on the persona around people just like him if it started because of kids at school making fun of him for his precognition (and later because of his weight and reasons that would make his past self kill him at this moment). 

He wondered a lot of things. Why Nick seemed to have taken a liking to  _ him _ of all people, why they moved together so well, why Nick’s hand felt so well in his own; why he wanted to kiss the other so much he felt as though he couldn't breathe. A lot of whys, but he didn't want to think about them right now, a really good song had just come on and Nick was staring at him like he wanted to kiss Emery just as much as he wanted to kiss Nick, and, for now, they would just dance.

**Author's Note:**

> PLS THE ORIGINAL IDEA WAS (copy and pasted) "Idea: nick wants to dance with emery and emery pretends he hates it and doesn’t want to yet does it anyway after some badgering and ends up not being able to stop himself from having fun and perhaps nick gets ballsy as usual and perhaps kisses emery and his cheeks turn rose red and he's like “fuck you why you do that I’m not gay” and that's only because he's scared of hate crimes and his sexuality but thankfully nick can read minds so he knows how he really feels and perhaps whispers something to him n yeah:)))))))))" but I was like Nah fuck that my boys gonna have a Good Time today bitch ALSO their chaotic dancing (and therefore basically the whole fic) came from the behinds the scenes where they dance uwu


End file.
